Hugh Hetherington Hearing Aid Museum
Hugh Hetherington Hearing Aid Museum

The Hearing Aid Museum

Hearing Aids of all types—Ear Trumpets, Carbon Hearing Aids, Vacuum Tube Hearing Aids, Transistor Hearing Aids, Body Hearing Aids, Eyeglass Hearing Aids and much more!

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Click on the "General Information" button (top button above) for an overview and general information on this category of hearing aid.

 

Hearing Aid Batteries

Rayovac RP401 Heavy-Duty Mercury Hearing Aid Battery

The Rayovac RP401 1.4 volt heavy duty mercury hearing aid battery was made by Rayovac Corp of Madison, WI. It largely replaced the R-401 (regular duty) mercury battery that was in use in transistor body hearing aids in the 1960s and 1970s.

The RP401 battery weighed 0.4 oz. (11 g) and measured 1⅛" by 7/16" in diameter (2.8 x 1.2 cm). Mercury batteries of this size were known as "N" batteries.

Mercury batteries are no longer sold today because of the large quantities of mercury in them, and the consequent environmental concerns.

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Back

 
Front view of the Rayovac RP401. This earlier version had black lettering on a gold background.

 


 

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Side view of the Rayovac RP401 showing the polarity arrow showing the bottom is the positive terminal.

 


 

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Top view of the Rayovac RP401 showing the negative terminal.

 


 

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Bottom view of the Rayovac RP401 showing the positive terminal.

 


 

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The Rayovac RP401 mercury batteries came 2 to a box.

 


 

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Top view of the Rayovac RP401 box showing the two holes where you could test the voltage of the batteries without taking them out of the box. That way you could be sure you were getting "fresh" batteries.


 

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Front view of the Rayovac RP401 box showing that these were heavy duty batteries.

 


 

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Right side view of the Rayovac RP401 battery box.

 


 

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Left side view of the Rayovac RP401 battery box. Note that at this time Ray-O-Vac was a division of ESB Incorporated.

 


 

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This black battery was a later version of the Rayovac RP401 heavy duty hearing aid battery.

 


 

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Side view of the black Rayovac RP401 mercury battery showing the model number and voltage.

 


 

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End view of the positive terminal of the black Rayovac RP401 mercury battery.

 


 

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The black Rayovac RP401 mercury batteries came 2 to a box.

 


 

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End view of the black Rayovac RP401 box showing the cutout at one end. There was a similar cutout on the other end. This made it easy to test the voltage of the batteries without taking them out of the box. That way a customer could be sure he was getting "fresh" batteries.

 


 

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